---
title: 16. The Tattooed Man
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/18-the-tattooed-man/
description: 16. The Tattooed Man, from Falsehood in War-Time by Arthur Ponsonby.
section: FRAME
---

![Illustration: an interwar radio-and-newsreel intelligence collage with a 1930s map of Europe and propaganda poster proofs.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-interwar.jpg)

[Library](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/) · Book · [Falsehood in War-Time](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/)

# 16. The Tattooed Man

This text

- **Work:** [Falsehood in War-Time](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/)
- **Author:** Arthur Ponsonby
- **Published:** 1928

Full details

- **Rights:** Published in the United Kingdom in 1928, more than 95 years ago, so in the public domain in the United States. Ponsonby died in 1946, so the text is also in the public domain in countries that count the author's life plus 70 years.

Chapters

1. [Preface](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/01-preface/)
2. [Introduction](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/02-introduction/)
3. [1. The Commitment to France](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/03-the-commitment-to-france/)
4. [2. Serbia and the Murder of the Archduke](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/04-serbia-and-the-murder-of-the-archduke/)
5. [3. Invasion of Belgium as Cause of War](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/05-invasion-of-belgium-as-cause-of-war/)
6. [4. Germany’s Sole Responsibility for the War](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/06-germany-s-sole-responsibility-for-the-war/)
7. [5. Passage of Russian Troops through Great Britain](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/07-passage-of-russian-troops-through-great-britain/)
8. [6. The Mutilated Nurse](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/08-the-mutilated-nurse/)
9. [7. The Criminal Kaiser](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/09-the-criminal-kaiser/)
10. [8. The Belgian Baby without Hands](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/10-the-belgian-baby-without-hands/)
11. [9. The Louvain Altar-Piece](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/11-the-louvain-altar-piece/)
12. [10. The Contemptible Little Army](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/12-the-contemptible-little-army/)
13. [11. Deutschland über Alles](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/13-deutschland-ber-alles/)
14. [12. The Baby of Courbeck Loo](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/14-the-baby-of-courbeck-loo/)
15. [13. The Crucified Canadian](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/15-the-crucified-canadian/)
16. [14. The Shooting of the Franzosling](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/16-the-shooting-of-the-franzosling/)
17. [15. Little Alf’s Stamp Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/17-little-alf-s-stamp-collection/)
18. [16. The Tattooed Man](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/18-the-tattooed-man/)
19. [17. The Corpse Factory](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/19-the-corpse-factory/)
20. [18. The Bishop of Zanzibar’s Letter](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/20-the-bishop-of-zanzibar-s-letter/)
21. [19. The German U-Boat Outrage](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/21-the-german-u-boat-outrage/)
22. [20. Constantinople](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/22-constantinople/)
23. [21. The “Lusitania”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/23-the-lusitania/)
24. [22. Report of a Broken-up Meeting](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/24-report-of-a-broken-up-meeting/)
25. [23. Atrocity Stories](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/25-atrocity-stories/)
26. [24. Faked Photographs](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/26-faked-photographs/)
27. [25. The Doctoring of Official Papers](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/27-the-doctoring-of-official-papers/)
28. [26. Hypocritical Indignation](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/28-hypocritical-indignation/)
29. [27. Other Lies](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/29-other-lies/)
30. [28. The Manufacture of News](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/30-the-manufacture-of-news/)
31. [29. War Aims](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/31-war-aims/)
32. [30. Foreign Lies](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/32-foreign-lies/)

[← 15. Little Alf’s Stamp Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/17-little-alf-s-stamp-collection/) [17. The Corpse Factory →](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/19-the-corpse-factory/)

**Content note:** Repeats First World War atrocity stories, including invented ones, and their wording. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

Towards the end of 1918 a statement was circulated, supported by photographs, that English prisoners had been tattooed with the German Eagle, a cobra, or other devices on their faces. The interesting feature in this lie is that it seems to have emanated from quite a number of different individuals, each one eager to embroider some entirely unsubstantiated rumour which had spread.

Tattooing Charges not Confirmed.

On December 7th a statement appeared in the Press that a ship’s fireman named Burton Mayberry had arrived at Newcastle bearing on his cheeks tattoo marks representing heads of cobras, which he alleged had been inflicted by two sailors by order of a German submarine commander in mid-Atlantic, on the occasion of the torpedoing of Mayberry’s ship in April 1917. Pictures of Mayberry, showing the head of a cobra on each cheek, have dso appeared in various illustrated papers.

The matter has been investigated, and it has been ascertained that on November 13th Mayberry applied for registration as a seaman preparatory to offering himself for employment in the British mercantile marine, and that, in making his application, he stated that he had had no previous sea service. He has now disappeared, and it seems that his disappearance took place after receiving a request to attend in order to receive his registration certificate. Former associates of Mayberry state that he never made any allusion to the alleged outrage.

Frequent statements have recently appeared in the Press with regard to the alleged branding of British soldiers by loo FALSEHOOD IN WAR-TIME the Gcimans, but the responsible authorities have been unable to obtain any confirmation of these allegations.

“ The Times,” December 23, 1918.

The following extract from the Manchester Guardian and the statement of “ Artifex ” (the pseudonym of a well-known Manchester ecclesiastic) give other versions of the story more fully.

Our contributor “ Artifex ” ventured to suggest last week that the story of the prisoner who had been tattooed on the cheek by the Germans, which had gained through a section of the Press a wide currency among simple people, was not established by any credible evidence. He tells us to-day that he has since been deluged with letters enclosing accounts of just how the man was tattooed, and giving details of his former history and of his present occupation and domestic relations. Each of the correspondents who sent these letters was no doubt confirmed, by the cutting he sent, in his belief in the truth of the tale and in the wilful blindness of “ Artifex.” Unfortunately for their authors, the stories vary so profoundly in essential facts as to make it clear to anyone who correlates them, as “ Artifex ” has done, that they are born of a myth, rapidly spread, and gathering variety as it goes. If that were not enough, dtere is yet more irrefutable evidence. The camera, it is said, cannot lie. Yet on December 9th two different newspapers published photographs of the victim. Each picture represents his whole right profile. The one shows his cheek marked with a full-length snake, in black, the other decorates it with a snake’s head in outline. But a tattoo is a permanent mark which years cannot alter or deface. Any jury confronted with these conflicting pictures would be forced to agree that the disfigurement was daily reapplied by the sufferer, and that he had omitted the precaution of having the same device repeated. Now this story must have added vastly to the anxieties of many families who have prisoners in enemy hands. Early in the war the authorities did not hesitate to recommend the suppression of the many reports of chivalrous treatment of our soldiers THE TATTOOED MAN loi by the Turks. That, in the light of the Turkish Government’s record as a whole, may have been reasonable. But we suggest that they should be at least not less active to prevent the spread of stories about the treatment of out prisoners which are as dubious as this one.

" Manehester Guardian” December 19, 1918.

Extract from “ Artifex ” comments :

Not indeed that I ought to complain, in this case, of lack of corroborative evidence. I have been assured that the man, while working in a dockyard on the Tyne, has also (1) undergone skin-grafting in Salford Royal Hospital, (2) gone mad with horror in Leaf Square Hospital, (5) caused by his awful appearance the premature confinement and death of his young wife at Levenshulme, (4) thrown his delicate twelve-year-old daughter into fits at Stockport, (5) lived for nine months in a house in Weaste without ever coming out except after dark, which is why none of the neighbours have ever seen him, and (6) resided for the whole time also at Gorton, Swinton, Pendlebury and Tyldesley.

[← 15. Little Alf’s Stamp Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/17-little-alf-s-stamp-collection/) [17. The Corpse Factory →](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/19-the-corpse-factory/)

Falsehood in War-Time, Arthur Ponsonby. Published in the United Kingdom in 1928, more than 95 years ago, so in the public domain in the United States. Ponsonby died in 1946, so the text is also in the public domain in countries that count the author's life plus 70 years. [Provenance and rights](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/ponsonby-falsehood-in-war-time/).